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"How long have you been Coordinator?"
"Since your approach to Old Earth was noted." Should I have not answered the
question truthfully, I wondered. A few questions to draffs or others in Parwon
would have revealed the answer anyway, and the last thing I needed was for the
cybs to question my honesty.
"Why were you selected?"
"The Consensus thought someone unencumbered would be better able to devote
full energy to the situation."
"I can't believe you're unencumbered. Is this some transition?"
"My soulmate died three months ago."
"And that makes you a candidate for planetary Coordinator?"
"The Consensus committee could change its decision at any time." I laughed.
"Maybe they will." She was right, in a way, though, as the flashback in the
enclave had demonstrated. I wasn't operating as clearly as I should be.
'You don't act as though you want the position."
"No Coordinator does."
That stopped her for a moment, and she moistened her lips and frowned,
glancing up at the screen for a time, her eyes glazed, her attention on the
net, seeking and scanning data on Old Earth. None of it was surprising.
I leaned back and waited, as I monitored her data requests. "What's that?" She
gestured to the screen and the evenly spaced hummocks centered in the plains
north of the Esklant Crossing. "Some renegade draffs hiding out?"
"Hardly. Draffs don't live away from the locials." "Why not?"
"It's a little rough out there. I've told you about the vor-pals and cougars,
and that doesn't include the giant scorpions, snakes, and some very
intelligent bears. It's safer nearer the locials. Anyway, that's a prairie dog
town." "A prairie dog town? Rodents made that?" "It's a prairie dog town." "I
don't believe it." I shrugged. "It's true."
"Could you take me to see that? And Viedras he'd love to see something like
that assuming it's real. Could you take us to see it?"
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"Who's Viedras?" "Our naturalist."
Obviously, the idea was to keep me occupied and out of touch as much as
possible while the cybs readied their attack. And she clearly didn't believe
my statement that draffs didn't live away from the locials, but they didn't,
except for those that didn't live long.
Crucelle was off-system. He did sleep, sometimes. So I netlinked Arielle, and
backplayed the conversation. 'Your thoughts, darkangel?"
"So complimentary you are, Ecktor. That scheming cybnav has definitely gotten
orders to keep you on the go, and she likes you in an odd way, which means
she's putting more into it than she has to."
"Thank you. Do you think the town will reveal too much?"
"It's more likely to mislead her and the cybs. I'd calculate that they'd think
it would show how we've totally lost control."
"I can't say no."
'You shouldn't. Not to the town visit," Arielle answered.
"Thanks." I turned in the seat to Kemra. "We can manage something, I'd guess."
"Where were you?"
"I'm sorry?" I managed to look puzzled.
'Your eyes sort of glazed over for a moment. You were here, and you weren't."
Great! She knew we had something like the overnet, but I didn't want her to
realize its range, not yet, anyway. "I was thinking about prairie dogs and
what we'd need."
"Need? They're rodents, aren't they?"
'You'll need your sidearm and the equivalent of a rifle slugthrower variety.
We can provide them, or you could even bring a half-squad of your armed
marines."
A faraway pulse from Arielle added to my concerns. "Eck-tor, I told you she
was more than a little interested. You're Coordinator, remember?"
"For rodents?" asked Kemra.
'You'll see," I promised both of them. Then I leaned back in the supple couch
and closed my eyes.
After my day at the ruins, I decided to spend the next morning in the southern
gorge. If it had been earlier in the year, I would have gone up to the Breaks,
but there was already more than a meter of snow there, and I didn't want to
fight bodily chill when I was trying to lift soul-cold.
I lingered over a third cup of tea, running my fingers across the polished
flattened oval of adiamante that I'd brought back from my run days earlier. No
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matter how I held it, the niellen-deep blackness never lightened. Nor did the
adiamante ever seem warmer or colder, and not even a diamond could scratch it.
I suppose that was the way we demis wanted Old Earth to be, unchanging and [ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]